Whitehall's online target 'too ambitious'

E-envoy Andrew Pinder surprised many in government when he said that the 2005 deadline for providing 100 per cent of its services to the public online was too ambitious.

This view was confirmed at the Socitm Conference at the Grand Hotel in Brighton, when Pinder asked local authorities to forget the tick-box approach to government objectives, and concentrate on delivering major services through targeting and segmentation based on public needs.

The main theme of the conference was Pathfinding. This is a £25m scheme funded by the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions - part of a larger £350m online government budget - to support 25 selected authorities which are looking to implement innovative online services. Councils should learn from each other, and avoid reinventing the wheel.

It is evident that there has not been much collaboration between local authorities, particularly regarding IT. And as the government's online agenda unfolds, there are many areas that need fleshing out.

First, we need to recognise that joined-up working and service delivery is not just about local government - all public and voluntary sector organisations need to take it on board.

The number of key organisations needed to provide a seamless function to the public must be in their thousands. As a leader of one of the Pathfinder projects, I want to see a greater level of collaboration between these organisations, particularly from central government departments.

Pinder tells us that we should tackle big online government services first, but what are these services?

There is sufficient understanding of technology and business requirements to draw up a more solid definition of what we are trying to achieve.

Are local authorities, which have responsibilities for education, social services, housing, planning and benefits, so dissimilar that a common, core set of online services could not be defined and addressed collectively?

Funding, or the lack of it, is a consistent theme in the public sector. A budget of £350m to get government services online sounds like a lot of money, but it actually accounts for less than 10 per cent of current IT budgets, and it will not buy much technology for each of the 387 councils over the next three years.

Capital can surely be found through private/public partnerships but, whether they are joint ventures, strategic partnerships, or hire purchase, the funding still has to be paid for.

Equally, efficiency savings do not necessarily negate the need for increased overall investment. From the public's viewpoint, for the next few years at least, electronic facilities will largely be additional services, rather than replacement, especially considering that 40 per cent of the population has never used the internet.

As a nation which clearly recognises the strategic importance of IT in terms of social and economic development, we cannot afford to look away from the big issues. To get government services online, we need to address the questions of investment and direction.